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Officer guilty of raping black women ‘picked the wrong lady’

OKLAHOMA CITY – A “serial rapist with a badge” who faces many years in prison for raping black women on his police beat was caught because of the courage of a grandmother who refused to remain silent after he sexually assaulted her, her lawyer said Friday.

“He just picked the wrong lady to stop that night,” said Jannie Ligons, whose police complaint triggered the investigation that led to charges Daniel Holtzclaw victimized 13 women as an Oklahoma City Police officer. “I wanted to make sure this wouldn’t happen again, no way no how.”

The conviction of Holtzclaw Thursday night on rape, sexual battery and other charges should send a strong message nationwide, said attorney Benjamin Crump, who said he plans to sue the city for civil damages.

“Black women’s lives matter. It mattered just as if this were a group of 13 white women,” Crump said.

Jurors found Holtzclaw, who turned 29 on Thursday, guilty of 18 counts involving eight of the women. He was acquitted of charges involving five other women he encountered while on night patrol in a minority, low-income neighborhood. They recommended 263 years, including 30-year sentences for each of four first-degree rape convictions.

Flanked by her family and a group of African-American activists outside the Oklahoma City courthouse, Ligons said she knew she had done nothing wrong when Holtzclaw pulled her over and assaulted her.

“I was out there alone and helpless, didn’t know what to do. In my mind, all I could think of was that he was going to shoot me, he was going to kill me,” said Ligons, a day care worker in her 50s who was pulled over while driving home from a night with friends. “He did things to me that I didn’t think a police officer would do.”

With the support of her daughters, Ligons said she immediately went to police, triggering the probe that led to what many praised as justice on Friday. “I wanted to make sure this wouldn’t happen again, no way no how,” she said.

Investigators found other victims through records of the background checks Holtzclaw had requested, and noticed that in many cases, the GPS locator in his squad car was switched off. He was fired and then jailed as other victims emerged.

Sexual misconduct committed by law enforcement officers is a problem that has concerned police chiefs for years.

Holtzclaw’s case was among those examined in a yearlong Associated Press investigation that revealed about 1,000 officers nationwide had lost their licenses for sex crimes or other sexual misconduct over a six-year period.

The AP’s finding is undoubtedly an undercount, since not every state has a process for banning problem officers from re-entering law enforcement, and states that do vary greatly in how they report and prosecute wrongdoers.

One factor stands out, however — victims tend to be among society’s most vulnerable: juveniles, drug addicts, and women in custody or with a criminal history. And that’s exactly who authorities accused Holtzclaw of targeting.

Questions of race surrounded the trial. Holtzclaw is half-white, half-Japanese. All his accusers are black. The case was heard by an all-white jury. Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said he had sought a “good cross-section of our community,” but defense attorneys had eliminated every potential black juror.

Prater said he hopes people will see that his office and local law enforcement will stand up for any one, no matter their race or background. Activists outside the courthouse Friday said they will closely watch Holtzclaw’s sentencing on Jan. 21.

The youngest of his victims, a 17-year-old girl, was the last to testify. She said Holtzclaw picked her up as she walked home one night in June 2014, and then walked her to the porch, where he told her he had to search her. She said he grabbed her breasts, then pulled down her pink shorts and raped her. Her DNA was found on his uniform trousers.

The jury convicted Holtzclaw of first-degree rape, second-degree rape and sexual battery in the girl’s case.

The AP does not identify victims of sex crimes without their consent and is not using the mother’s name, but is using Ligon’s name because she spoke publicly.

Defense attorney Scott Adams, who declined to comment after the verdicts, sought to use the criminal backgrounds of some of the victims to cast doubt on their testimony. He questioned several women at length about whether they were high at the time, and noted that most didn’t come forward until investigators identified them as possible victims.

Ultimately, the strategy failed.

One woman even testified in orange scrubs and handcuffs, because she had been jailed on drug charges hours before appearing in court, but the jury still convicted Holtzclaw of forcible oral sodomy in her case. That woman said he followed her into her bedroom and raped her, telling her, “This is better than county jail.”

Holtzclaw, a college football star who joined law enforcement after a brief attempt at pursuing an NFL career, rocked back and forth, sobbing in his chair, as the verdicts were read.